PHOTOKINA 2012 - A PERSONAL VIEW
I have a very personal approach to Photokina. I am not
after the new products or the latest technological gizmos – instead, I focus on
interesting things that I feel could improve my photographic workflow, image
quality and artistic expression. It is a rare opportunity to talk to the
manufacturers and they are usually listening, being open for suggestions,
impovements and even critique.
THE HUMAN FACTOR
THE HUMAN FACTOR
Before the products, there’s people. Always so many
interesting people to meet at Photokina and this year was no exception. I was
invited by Marius Plytnikas, the regional development manager for Canon Video
products, to spend some cool time with director, cinematographer and web video
guru Philip Bloom. Philip is an extremely interesting guy and has an amazing
cool factor – no wonder his blog is
visited by tens of thousands of fans daily. Philip is a Canon spokesperson for
the C300 camera and you could see that his affection for this mighty machine is
very pristine. The new wide-open CN-E video lenses (a sort of Canon’s CP.2’s with
spectacular T-stops) were also on display at Canon’s state-of-the-art hall, as
was the standard lot of all the latest, freshest and coolest cameras and
imaging products – the 6D, S110 and C100 included.
I was enjoying my prosciutto hors d’oeuvres and chatting
with Guido Puttkamer, the managing director of Hensel GMBH. He was telling the
story about Hensel’s pioneering venture into the development of the first portable
strobe system unit (Porty) and how Broncolor and Profoto are always arguing
about which one has the shortest flash duration (it is Hensel). Profoto did
surprise everybody this year though with the new battery unit called Pro-B4
1000 Air, sporting some very impressive specs (1/25.000s flash duration, 30
flashes per second and just 45 minutes full battery recharging time), but at
the $8000 price tag, who really cares?
This year I was also fortunate enough to meet Mr. Dedo
Weigert, the inventor of the legendary Dedolight and an amazingly fine
gentleman, whose trademark white beard resembles that of KFC’s very own
Colonel. Mr. Weigert won an Academy Award for his lighting innovations and his
booth was full of goodies one would love to play with all the time. The most
interesting gadget I found there was a rig called C1 PRO by Cinemecanix, a Canadian
custom-made, heavy duty, hands free (!) shoulder support with all the bells and
whistles. It is super comfortable and perfectly balanced on your shoulder, so
you can let go of your rig with both hands at any time and your gear stays in
place. If I were buying a new rig today, this heavy, CNC-machined beast would
most definitely be on the top of my list!!
THE TASTE OF ASIA
As usually, the Chinese and Korean manufacturers were heavily
present in Cologne. They are always bringing some crazy, funky-but-cool cheapo
stuff to sell (remember, you get what you pay for!), but I also saw some very
high quality Made in China products
in the grip and video rig category, with the price tags to match the quality.
The Cinematics people came, bringing their cine-moded lens arsenal called Cinematics
CT.2, which looks suspiciously similar to Zeiss CP.2 series. They told me they
have patented their special geared lens housing in China and that Zeiss has no
beef with them - not entirely true, as I later found out at the booth of the
latter; the boys from Carl Zeiss were not pleased at all. Just by looking at a
CP.2 lens cut in half (Zeiss had a couple of them available for demonstration) you
can see the quality and craftsmanship of these optical cathedrals on steroids.
I wanted to know if the CP.2’s were made in Japan (as you know, Cosina makes
most Zeiss lenses), but they assured me that for this product line, the Japanese
parts (amongst others) are assembled by hand in Oberkochen, Germany.
THE OVERLOOKED
The “little big boys” were in Cologne as well –
Blaesing, who makes custom flashes (need a strobe in the shape of that beer
jug? Just call them!), Bacht, who designs complex lighting devices (they also
produce zoom spots and rigid striplights for many strobe companies), Arca Swiss
and Alpa with their incredibly alluring clockwork masterpieces, and the “best-kept-secret”
lens company from Korea called Samyang/Wallimex/Rokinon/etc., which exploded all
over the photo & video scene with their ultra-affordable, wide-open professional
quality SLR lenses ranging from 8 to 85mm, which are now also available in cine-moded
versions. From the hundreds of really good exhibitors, these are the ones I chose
to mention here, but many, many others had amazing stuff as well – HPRC
(cases), B-Grip (belt grips), Genus (rigs), K5600 (lighting), Leica (medium
format cameras), Kessler (grip equipment), O’Connor (matte boxes, follow focus
and stands), Lupolux (LED and HMI fresnel lights), Technicolor (camera
profiles), Aurora (light banks), Think Tank (bags) to name but just a few. Just
go and browse the blogs.
THE LESS PLEASING
One of the unfortunate disappointments of the 2012 Photokina was
the tiny, overcrowded Hasselblad booth in Hall 2. A black Ferrari convertible just
sitting put behind the fence, blocking one third of the entire booth and a
“catwalk” stage that resembled a high-class strip club… what happened here? In
my personal opinion as a H4D owner the new Hasselblad H5D camera housing also seems
to have a much cheaper feel to it
than the previous series – but mind you it was the prototype I handled. Of course
the specs are improved and the camera’s user interface, battery and other
features are completely redesigned, which makes the new Hasselblad an even
greater camera to own, but the Photokina presentation of one of the world’s
most respected fashion, architectural and product photography tools left a lot
of room for improvement (a german photographer Manfred Baumann for example managed
to gather a huge crowd in hall 9 when he did his live workshop on a proper, long
catwalk – with a topless model in translucent g-strings). I do not even want to start the new Hasselblad Lunar for $6.500 vs. Sony NEX 7 debate...
I was also disappointed with Lastolite because they too make great products, but refused to bring any of them from UK for sale (I am in the market for the big Tri-Grip). Photoflex and California Sunbounce next door were selling their (discounted!) reflectors and other stuff like hot cakes, so I went and got one of those. Please learn from that, Lastolite…
I was also disappointed with Lastolite because they too make great products, but refused to bring any of them from UK for sale (I am in the market for the big Tri-Grip). Photoflex and California Sunbounce next door were selling their (discounted!) reflectors and other stuff like hot cakes, so I went and got one of those. Please learn from that, Lastolite…
FINAL WORDS
Photokina is a beast. Nobody can imagine the grandeur and
expanse of the world’s largest photography fair until they visit it. You absolutely
have to experience it yourself. The city of Cologne lives and breathes with the
fair, the atmosphere is super-relaxed and the ice-cold Koelsch beer is
available everywhere. For some, that fact alone is a big enough reason to come.